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The Last Lullaby [ 2008 ] [ Hits:7041 ]
Review: The Last Lullaby is a rare Hollywood mystery starring Tom Sizemore and Sasha Alexander. Director, Jeffrey Goodman debuts with a film noir story that dabbles in the realm of drama, romance, mystery and thriller. Peter Biegen and Max Collins (Road to Perdition) concoct a script based on a short story for The Last Lullaby, which takes an atmospheric, cold, pensive and realistic bite out of Hollywood. At its best, The Last Lullaby conjures up flashbacks to The Professional and The Assassination of J...

Enemy [ Hits:2539 ]
Review: "You are your own worst enemy." While we sometimes hurt ourselves or behave unlike ourselves, it's quite a feat for anyone to believe it was our "evil twin". Greek mythology suggests we were all originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing our power, Zeus separated the beings to be in search of their other halves. While twins seem to have an uncanny synergy, the concept of duality continues to fascinate our increasingly narcissistic society and is the driving f...

Ballade vir 'n Enkeling [ Hits:3382 ]
Review: Ballade vir 'n Enkeling is an Afrikaans mystery drama based on the '80s television series of the same name. After acclaimed author, Jacques Rynhard, goes missing, an aspiring journalist attempts to find out what became of him. As our intrepid journalist sets out on a mission to get dirt on the talented man, she uncovers a series of stories from those close to Rynhard as flashbacks rise to the surface. The film adaptation is contemporary, maintaining aspects from the original series and moving t...

Gone Girl [ Hits:2590 ]
Review: David Fincher is a heavyweight director with a proven track record, who has become synonymous with dark mystery crime thrillers after Seven, The Game, Fight Club, Zodiac, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and now Gone Girl. His latest film, an adaptation penned by Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn herself, is a curiously entertaining dark pearl about a man who becomes the focus of an intense media circus after the disappearance of his wife. The film co-stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, who share ...

Mud [ Hits:2951 ]
Review: Mud is a slow-boiling mystery drama. In much the same way as Chinatown, this film slowly immerses us in a sticky, intriguing and unpredictable atmosphere. Instead of a gumshoe detective hunting down an ever-widening conspiracy, we have a young curious boy and his friend, who befriend a fugitive. The boys would have been right at home in Stand By Me, except this is really Mud's movie. Matthew McConnaughey is Mud, a charming and resourceful man, whose small town upbringing and tempestuous n...

Trance [ Hits:4911 ]
Review: "You're back in the room." What happens when are our eyes are closed and our subconscious has the run of the place is a mystery in itself. Whether we're dreaming, hypnotized or in a state of deep relaxation - we seem to be vulnerable to the power of suggestion by the voices around us. Trance explores this state with a similar edge to Inception, Memento and even Fight Club. A fine art auctioneer (McAvoy) becomes the missing piece to a gang's recovery of a stolen Goya artwork. After a knock on t...

The Raven [ Hits:5255 ]
Review: Edgar Allan Poe was a 19th century American writer best known for his works of mystery and the macabre, a strong influence on the genre of detective fiction. The Raven is one of the most famous poems today and now the title for the film by V for Vendetta director James McTeigue. The Raven is a mystery thriller and a fictionalised account of Poe's last days, which are still shrouded in mystery. Screenwriters Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare have concocted a tale that embodies the dark Gothi...

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy [ Hits:5101 ]
Review: If a nice cup of tea, a dry butter scone and a fascinating game of chess against one of those electronic Kasparov chessboards sounds like a great night in... Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is your movie. Slow-moving, dull, dreary and stoney-faced - this Cold War club for stiff cigar room suits makes the dense two hour plod as inviting as having root canal on a rocking chair... and the worst part is, it's intentional. An adaptation of John le Carré's espionage novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, ente...

The Nocturnal Third [ Hits:5025 ]
Review: The Nocturnal Third is an atmospheric neo-noir mystery thriller starring Kevin Maggard, Westcott Youngson and Luke Weaver. This low budget production works within its constraints, choosing to shoot primarily at the stone masonery where the drama takes place. The story is taken from a young man's perspective as he adjusts to the responsibilities of his new job at the stone works. It's an in-between job for the budding cartoonist and he's called to do a late shift. The Nocturnal Third relies quit...

Missing Pieces [ Hits:6960 ]
Review: Missing Pieces is an independent film, one which has painstakingly made it through countless reshoots, rewrites and sleepless nights. Kenton Bartlett, a young film-maker at the heart of Missing Pieces, would be the first to admit the production was a serious learning curve - one with its highs and lows. The end result is an indie drama, mystery and romance with a jigsaw narrative, similar to Memento, and a haunting atmosphere comparable to Never Let Me Go.While not in the same league as the afor...

The American [ 2010 ] [ Hits:6272 ]
Review: Bill Murray played the 'American' in Jim Jarmusch's pretentious art house "thriller", The Limits of Control, the story of a mysterious stranger in the process of completing a job. What has this got to do with The American? Well, firstly the title shares a connection with Bill Murray's character in The Limits of Control. Secondly, renowned music video director, Anton Corbijn is probably most famous for his film about Joy Division's Ian Curtis called Control. So there are two contact points of int...

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo [ 2009 ] [ Hits:6403 ]
Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been swathed in mystery since the inception of Lisbeth Salander. Late political activist and journalist turn world famous crime fiction author, Stieg Larsson, delivered the first three parts of the Millenium series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest before suffering a heart attack at the age of 50 a few days later. The trilogy quickly became a bestseller partly spurred on by this morose, ...

The Box [ 2009 ] [ Hits:6042 ]
Review: The Box stars Cameron Diaz and while The Botox would have been a more provocative title, the curiosity of discovering what's inside the box has been a "priceless" fascination for man, cat and baby since the beginning of time. Writer-director, Richard Kelly has only made one film since the acclaimed Donnie Darko. Unfortunately, Southland Tales didn't deliver the goods as a follow-up film and made Donnie Darko seem more like a fluke than a masterpiece. Even more disappointing is that it's still ...

The Ghost Writer [ 2010 ] [ Hits:6038 ]
Review: Alfred Hitchcock was the Master of Suspense, yet he also created one of the world's most famous horrors, Psycho. Horror and thriller go hand-in-hand, building the audience up to the climax and then frightening them out of their wits. Another man credited with crafting a famous horror film is Roman Polanski, who delivered Rosemary's Baby. These two directors know how to build tension, wrap the beholder in mystery and keep the rope taut right until the dramatic, surprising and brilliant conclusion...

Shutter Island [ 2010 ] [ Hits:6731 ]
Review: I love a good mystery/thriller… that’s why I just had to catch Shutter Island, a new Scorsese film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and based on the novel of the same title by crime/mystery writer, Dennis Lehane (Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River). DiCaprio and Scorsese are quickly becoming a Hollywood staple as Shutter Island marks the fourth DiCaprio/Scorsese pairing after Oscar contenders, Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Departed.The Shutter Island trailer teased us into thinking this was goi...

Sherlock Holmes [ 2009 ] [ Hits:6901 ]
Review: What comes to mind when you hear the name Sherlock Holmes? The character has been around since the late 1800s when Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle conjured up a man, who could draw big conclusions from small details. A London-based detective, whose sharp intellect and keen eye could keep him in-the-know, without having to rely on any explosive MacGyver or trigger-happy Rambo skills. Well, wipe the slate clean, because the enigmatic Robert Downey Jr. has come to town with the wrong hat and without a magni...

The Nines [ 2007 ] [ Hits:5194 ]
Review: The Nines tells the story of an actor who has a nervous breakdown, a writer who loses his grip on a TV show and a stranded video game designer start to find their stories intertwine in the most mysterious and puzzling manner. It's a film that combines the best of Donnie Darko with The Number 23. If you’ve watched Donnie Darko, you’ll find familiarity with the same feeling experienced at the end of The Nines. There’s a mixture of elation and confusion that surrounds the film, in which you�...

Scoop [ 2006 ] [ Hits:5238 ]
Review: Scoop is a classic Woody Allen movie, which was written with Scarlett Johansson in mind. Johansson worked with Allen on Match Point, and subsequently with Jackman in The Prestige. The movie is an amalgamation of Match Point, The Prestige and Woody Allen’s comedy. An American journalism student gets the scoop of a lifetime when she is given the true identity of the infamous Tarot Card Killer. There’s suspense in all the undercover detective work as Sondra (Johansson) puts the puzzle together....

Cleaner [ 2007 ] [ Hits:5707 ]
Review: Cleaner is directed by Renny Harlin, and tells the story of an ex-cop sterilisation cleaner, who becomes unknowingly involved in a homicide after doing a cover-up job. Harlin is best known for The Long Kiss Goodnight, Cliffhanger and Die Hard 2. Samuel L. Jackson stars in Cleaner, and the two have worked in a number of similar projects. Jackson has starred in The Exorcist III, while Harlin directed the latest prequel. Jackson starred in Die Hard 3, while Harlin directed Die Hard 2. Then Jackson ...

Zodiac [ 2007 ] [ Hits:5344 ]
Review: Ciphered codes in ancient symbols, psychotic letters and a string of unsolved murders usually add up to a fantastic serial killer movie. The same can be said for Zodiac with one difference, it all actually happened. It's a film based on Robert Graysmith’s books about the real-life Zodiac killer. David Fincher is the director responsible for such classic films as Fight Club, Se7en and The Game. After a five year film hiatus he returns with Zodiac, a name that seems to consume all that try to de...

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